The expectation was maximum. And the challenge was worth it. Neither more nor less than the arrival of an iceberg weighing 15,000 kilos in Malaga from Greenland. Purpose? Environmental and awareness-raising, according to what its promoters defended: they wanted to place it in the middle of a street in the Andalusian city so that everyone could see how it fell apart. For the promoters, a metaphor for what is happening in the Arctic. For others, a completely dispensable performance. Today was D-day, H-hour. The mass of ice had to be presented to society. Everything was prepared for it. From the Malaga Provincial Council, which financed part of the project, a press conference was planned to show the newcomer. And yes, the appearance before the media has taken place, but with the absence of the main protagonist. The promoter of the challenge was Manuel Calvo, founder and president of the NGO MaratonDog, who had to deal with the incredulous gaze of those present. Next to him, Cristóbal Ortega, first vice president of the Provincial Council, did not know where to look.
The presentation was moving forward, but no one was talking about the elephant in the room. Where is the iceberg? Locals and strangers asked each other without verbalizing it. Well, they had to wait for the end of Manuel Calvo's speech, which was not brief, to find out. He has vanished.
Calvo explained that things began to go wrong on August 9. That day, the shipping company that was transporting the mass of ice in a container (in theory, at 22 degrees below zero to preserve it) called him. They explained to him that an accident had occurred. "Apparently, they did not anchor the iceberg and of course, with the rocking of the ship, the mass of ice moved and, with its weight, ended up bursting the door of the container," he argued. The result? The iceberg fragmented into 4 pieces.
After digesting the disappointment, Calvo told them that anyway, and although it was not the same, he wanted the iceberg (or what was left of it) to reach Malaga. "There was that commitment to the city," he said. And that's how they stayed with the shipping company. But she called him again after a few days. Another mishap had occurred. The largest remaining piece of the iceberg was the size of a watermelon. In short, not a single cube has arrived in Malaga.
Calvo recalled that the challenge was huge - "it was not about going to Benidorm and filling a bottle with sand" - that "failure is not trying" and that he has already accepted what happened. “Every achievement that one sets out to achieve cannot always be achieved,” he argued, while the representative of the Provincial Council, who was next to him, kept looking at the ground.
He also explained, when asked by journalists, that not a single euro of the transport cost has been paid. In this sense, he has reported that there was an amount reserved for this purpose of 5,000 euros (in part, public money from the Provincial Council) that has not finally been paid. The reason? The deal with the shipping company was to compensate for the work once the iceberg had reached Malaga, which has not happened. He has also stressed that none of the ten expedition members, including him, has been paid for carrying out the expedition.
Likewise, he has reported that although the iceberg has not arrived, they will calculate the carbon footprint they have generated and, subsequently, they will carry out reforestation to compensate for it (everyone has been calmer after knowing this).
However, he wanted to emphasize that the effort has not been in vain. All the material they have collected – and which will be translated into a documentary, which they will present on November 7, and which they intend to take to different film festivals – will be exhibited in different schools. “We are going to tell everything we have experienced there. We are not scientists, but we are messengers of what is happening there.”
In this sense, he is pleased that his challenge has aroused so much media expectation. “Up to 180 media outlets, both national and international, have reported it.” In the end, he has argued, what they intended to do, and understands that they have achieved, "was a wake-up call to send a message: the Arctic is melting, let's save the Arctic." Certainly, what has melted is the iceberg that they had announced with great fanfare, the jewel in the crown of the Arctic Challenge project.
